


Drive My Soul(s)

by FreckledStarKnight



Series: Say Goodnight to the Sun [1]
Category: MapleStory
Genre: Blood and Gore, M/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-08 06:36:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11640993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreckledStarKnight/pseuds/FreckledStarKnight
Summary: Victory is never flawless after all. The Alliances loses a lot more people than they wanted on the Lumiere. The Cygnus Knights are no exception. Set during and after the events of Black Heaven and before Heroes of Maple.





	Drive My Soul(s)

**Author's Note:**

> This was made with a different point of view of what happened on the Lumiere as the small group of Alliance members infiltrate the Black Heaven. Also if Maplestory wants to make their plot dark, I'll just make it darker *laughs* Let's be real, there is no way that nobody would have died besides the main player of this Blockbuster. Or at least mortally injured.

“Eckhart!” Mihile’s command broke through the sounds of lasers and chaos. Eckhart scanned the area for that voice, dodging laser beams in the process. He ditched his signature cloak once he saw the robots wielding flamethrowers. So far, his body was intact. Bad news was that he got separated from his assigned group when a bomb dropped too close to their group. That forced everyone to split up in different directions. Mihile was most likely on the same boat. The grays of smoke and bright flames danced in his vision, but Eckhart could still make out the blond hair.

Mihile stood out like a super nova, blasting robots left and right with his four-point assault. Athena Pierce, Neinheart, and the Resistance chiefs already left to invade Black Heaven. The rest of the Cygnus Knights, Heroes, and Resistance remained on board to defend the Lumiere. Or what was left of it anyways. The Lumiere has seen better days. Burns, holes, robot parts, corpses, and blood littered the entire ship. Another attack from Black Heaven would annihilate it.

Soon Eckhart found himself back to back with the other man in a sea of robots. They gravitated toward each other, which was a fact he could rely on. He sent out vampire bats to assist Mihile’s left side. Meanwhile the Chief Knight of Light cleared out the first three rows with a powerful stream of light. Distant beams of varied colors danced in the fire red sky, showing that they were on opposite side of the deck. They were on their own. Eckhart turned to the warrior. One look at Mihile told him everything he needed to know about how dire their situation was. The warriors’ left arm that held his shield was completely broken in half. The shield was flickering red with the last of its power. Mihile’s upper thigh was also charred, burnt skin showing. There was an obvious limp in his stance with his attempt to protect it.

Eckhart grabbed Mihile out of the way of a blue laser and bounced backwards. Bright purple wings then emerged from his back. He raised his hand, forming a colony of shadow bats before sending them at the mob. With the robots occupied with the sudden ambush of bats, they ran behind a pile of barrels. Mihile kneeled down and jabbed his sword into the ground to avoid falling over. His face was completely pale, sweat dripping off of him like a water fall. Eckhart took his hand and squeezed it. This was the closet thing he could provide to emotional support. He took a closer inspection of the wound. Mihile’s thigh was completely stripped of his leggings, the edges sticking to lumps of black. Eckhart grimaced. He doesn't know how long Mihile can handle this amount of stress on his leg. He can't afford to watch over him either, not when there's so many monsters attacking the ship. Mihile caught him staring for too long and gave a strained smile.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Mihile said. Eckhart bit his lip, hidden behind his mask. He wanted to curse, snark back, anything to express the rising bile threatening to erupt from him. He wanted to take him out of the fight, keep him away from any harm. He prepared himself to make sacrifices but found that resolve slipping the more he looked at him. Look at how weak he's become. Instead Eckhart looked away and continued to rub circles into Mihile's hand. He pressed his mask toward Mihile, who tilted his head forward back in reply.

“Focus on me,” Eckart commanded. Mihile nodded his head, leaning on him. He could feel his bated breath against his neck. Eckhart took a dagger out and tore up Mihile’s red cloak while Mihile was trying to get oxygen back into his lungs. Eckhart cut up enough and wrapped it around his burnt thigh, receiving a hiss from the other man. Mihile attempted another smile at Eckhart. He wasn't convinced at all, since he saw Mihile wince when the cape touched his skin. He brushed a bit of hair from Mihile's sweaty face before peering over the boxes they hid behind.

“What happened to your team Eckhart?” Mihile asked, fighting through the pain in his leg in an attempt to stand up.

“Separated, like yours,” Eckhart replied without looking behind him.

Mihile frowned, “Everyone got separated so fast. They're trying to divide and conquer with their sheer numbers.”

Eckhart hummed behind his mask in agreement. He gave the Black Wings scientist credit for hiding this large number of robots and Black Heaven. No one in the Alliance expected such a size. Eckhart could only ask Rhinne to watch over his and Mihile’s team now.

When the first rockets approached the Lumiere, Mihile attempted to shield it Yet, the light began to dull, cracking the barrier and soon turned it off completely. Eckhart pulled Mihile out of the way as rockets began to wreck the ship. After the first wave of robots, Mihile discovered that the rockets nullified everything. Many mages on the Lumiere attempted the same thing he did with the same results. To compliment Mihiles’ current state, Eckhart was running out of stars. At the rate that the robots kept jumping on the ship, they weren’t going to last more than three minutes. The heavy amount of smog filling up his lungs and vision didn't help either. He counted the number of stars in his pockets and sighed. He was going to have to resort to depleting mana for bats if he wanted to conserve.

Eckhart looked past the boxes and spotted the robots that were chasing them earlier. Thanks to his bats, many of the robots scattered, attempting to blast the shadows out of the air. But, their numbers were not dwindling at all. In fact, it seemed like Black Heaven was throwing out a last-ditch effort against the Lumiere. Many more robots had landed nearby, shaking the ship. At this rate, Black Heaven will win by outweighing the ship into losing altitude. He peered at the fire red sky and tried to spot as many colored reflections within the clouds. When he was saving Mihile, the lights in the sky were full of color. Now the greys of the clouds were overtaking the colors. Signs of the Alliance were emitting less within each minute. Time was against the Lumiere. Mihile was thinking the same thing, because he stood up and ripped his sword out of the ground. He swayed a bit before Eckhart clasped onto his arm. Eckhart felt Mihile’s arm tremble under his.

“Mihile,” Eckhart warned. This wasn't the worst condition he's seen Mihile in, but the odds were out of their favor. There's no nearby Bishops or Clerics to immediately cure his leg. This was a stamina game now, which none of them could afford to waste.

Mihile grimaced, aware of his condition, "I can't afford to lay low. Not when there are still stragglers like us out there."

Eckhart clicked his tongue. He hated it when Mihile had a point.

“Watch yourself,” Eckhart only said.

"I always do."

It was a lie, but Eckhart let it slide. Mihile over the years had mellowed out from his aggressive stubbornness. Yet, in stressful times like these, Mihile ignores his welfare in favor of helping others. His position as leader directed his recklessness toward being a martyr. Eckhart looked over to Mihile and saw a fire light up in his tired eyes. He had that certain expression that screamed stubborn fool.

Eckhart was glad the mask was still on, because he wasn't sure he could hold a neutral face for long. There was so much he wanted to tell Mihile, but it was as if the rising smoke tightened his throat. He was a coward that never could never open up to the man. Instead of trying to communicate with him, he exhaled. He exhaled the swirling emotions and locked them away in a corner of his heart. Focus. They have people to rescue and regroup with. Eckhart knew that the Alliance were clearly outnumbered. Which means they would need all the fire power they could get, mortal injuries or not. God fucking damn it Mihile and his sense of duty.

“Let’s get to the edge. We’ll bait them out and see if there's anyone nearby,” Mihile said, examining the scene within the cover of the barrels. Eckhart nodded, though he doubt he saw. His hand created a cloudy purple ball, throwing it up into the crowd. Purple smoke rose from the ground, removing what little vision there was. The robots surrounding the area got confused, long enough for them to reach the edge of the Lumiere. As the two were sneaking along the rails, Eckhart heard desperate shouting. The two Chief Knights immediately broke off into a sprint into that direction. They followed the sounds of deflected lasers to find a large blue dome against the ships' edge.

A large amount of robots were attacking the dome, trying to fry the two people inside a cornered spot of the ship. Between the reflected lasers, Eckhart spotted a streak of spiky red and long blonde hair. It was Aidan and Valerie. Valerie was on the ground, blood seeping out of her abdomen. Aidan was attempting to cauterize the wound, but it was obvious from a distance that it wasn't working. The Battle Mage's mana was running out as the red swirling aura surrounding the two was fading. He was shaking, shouting out obscenities at the pirate. The pirate was countering back with snark in her greying body. The blue dome that was protecting the two from a swarm of lasers was beginning to fade as well. Eckhart cursed beneath his mask.

“Cover me!” Mihile shouted. The man spotted his partner already sweeping past the robots, hacking them in half. Eckhart sent more bats out of his hand before summoning a shadow clone of himself. The clone and bats acted as decoys, gaining the attention of the robots and away from the fading blue dome. Eckhart placed both hands on the planked floor, feeling the tug of all the robot’s shadows. Once his hands started shaking with exertion, he pulled them into his own shadow. His shadow began to expand into a wide circle that encased a majority of the robots within it. Soon many of the robots stopped moving, unable to fire their guns at either him or the dome. Those that were able to move were either cut down by Mihiles’ sword or Eckhart’s clone. The man reached the dome, passing through the dome's barrier. Aidan looked up in surprise before picking up his staff and scrambled over to Mihile.

“Is everyone okay? Where’s the rest of your team?” Eckhart heard Mihile ask them within the dome.

Aidan replied, “We got split up in the smog and laser fire. I’m fine, but my mana’s completely depleted. And Val’s got Lumiere shrapnel lodged inside her stomach-”

The Battle Mage stared and then gaped at Mihile's leg, "Chief Mihile, your leg-"

"Focus, Aidan," Mihile interrupted him, "I’m fine."

Bullshit, Eckhart wanted to say, but kept quiet. Instead he scanned the mass of immobile robots. He gritted his teeth. The shadow wasn't going to hold with how many robots got trapped inside. Many of them were struggling to get free, some even shattering themselves. There were still too many to handle even with Eckhart's clone taking them out as fast as possible. He felt the pull of the shadows getting weaker.

"Ten seconds!" Eckhart shouted to the group. Mihile acknowledged the warning with a nod and turned back to the two.

“We will find a Bishop for you Valerie and regroup with your team. But first we need to clear out the rest of these machines. Chief Eckhart’s bind is not going to hold out any longer. The moment your shield drops, close your eyes,” Mihile spoke. The two nodded, Valerie cursing as Aidan moved her into a standing position. The dome faded out with blue sparkles. Eckhart closed his eyes and let his shadow recede back into normal size. He jumped out of the way as Mihile faced the robots and swung his sword, releasing a blinding Radiant Cross. The robots released by the Shadow Stitch got struck and exploded. The world turned white as Eckhart’s face was hit with a warm presence.

“Come on, let’s go!” He heard Mihile tell the two younger members. Mihile was supporting Valerie on one side while Aidan was on the other. Eckhart threw several more purple stars at the remaining robots. He took Valerie from Mihile, throwing her shoulder over his. Together, they all made their way to the nearest hiding spot with Mihile at the front. Smoke still billowed out from beneath the Lumiere, but no other robots came to oppose them. The group ducked under some crates to reorganize themselves. He checked his pouch and clicked his tongue when he found only ten stars left and a mana potion. He tossed the potion at Aidan, who caught it in time. The boy nodded his thanks and consumed the elixir in one gulp. Immediately several colored auras swarmed the four, Eckhart feeling a burst of strength. Mihile tore up his red cape to wrap around her abdomen. The pirate was still muttering obscenities at the Chief Knight. Color returned to her face, but she still looked far from decent. Eckhart sighed. That was the last of their potions. At least they found allies that weren't dead.

“So, uh,” Valerie said, “We’re all fucked, right?”

The group stayed silent. The Cygnus Knights put together the army based on sign ups. They had no time to analyze everyone's strengths and weaknesses. There were no strategies, the only task to protect the Lumiere, which they all failed. Then everyone got thrown right into the fire once the bombs landed. The Alliance didn't have any battles on this scale before. They underestimated the power of the Black Wings and now they're paying for it. Eckhart couldn't even find any one person to blame for this. Him, for not digging deeper into the Black Wings when he was a recruit? The Resistance, for not keeping closer tabs? Or the Empress, for not being more aggressive? Still deep in his thoughts, Eckhart almost didn't catch Mihile clearing his throat. Everyone looked up to the Chief Knight, who stared hard at them. Valerie and Aidan almost shrunk under his stare, but didn’t try to look away from those piercing eyes.

“Yes, but that doesn't mean we give up. We fight together. When we find others, we can turn the momentum around. Our task is to stall the invasion until Black Heaven gets taken out of the sky.”

Both Aidan and Valerie looked at each other, doubtful. The first invasion was bad enough. The surprise arson left a lot of the Alliance members unconscious or dead. Then robots landed and everyone on board had to defend for themselves. They couldn't even touch the ship, which was their initial plan. No one knew of the actual size and fire power it had until Black Heaven rose above the clouds and bombed the Lumiere. And now there’s a second wave of them, the number of them tripling. Eckhart too was incredulous of their position. Two sustained major injuries, unable to fight with their full strength. That left the others in a defensive position where they had to watch out for the others. Eckhart inspected Mihile's face. His face was pale, but his dark blue eyes shined in the smog like a beacon of light.

Finally, Valerie spoke up, "Whelp, if the Chief says we got it, then we got it. Ah mean ya’ll get shit on by everyone, but people do actually look up to ya.”

Aidan nodded. His expression was unreadable, but Eckhart could tell that Aidan trusted Mihile enough. He was one of the few Resistance members that worked well with the Cygnus Knights without bias. Both their eyes flared with a new hope and energy.

Mihile turned to Eckhart and asked, "Can you scout for other people?"

Eckhart nodded. He summoned a bat out, using it to scan the sky in search of the nearest allies. The bat then became his eyes as he tried to navigate through the smoke and fire. He then found a set of white lights bursting in the sky. He peered below and saw a man dressed in white fighting off a horde of robots with a warrior with a pole-arm. They were near the front of the ship, a few kilometers away. The bat dissipated and Eckhart opened his eyes. He tapped Mihile’s shoulder for his attention.

“It's the light hero,” Eckhart stated.

Mihile replied, "Let’s go back him up. I’ll be right behind you.”

The group nodded, reloading and readying their perspective weapons. Mihile glanced around the boxes and found that only a few robots scattered around. He motioned them forward, letting Eckhart take the lead. Eckhart took initiative and crept toward the nearest robots, using Dark Sight. He took out a long dagger from his belt, ripping out their circuitry. One by one, the robots fell with ease as the rest followed behind. The initial smog cleared and allowed the group to spot the two Heroes sweeping away the robots with ease.

“Fuckin’ Heroes,” Valerie gritted her teeth, “Only they could make wreckin’ robots look good.”

“Just be glad they’re on our side Val,” Aidan smirked, “I mean, not that I’d like to have a chance at sparring with them, but-”

Out of nowhere, the Lumiere lurched forward, sending everyone to the ground. The initial inertia blasted them toward different areas. Valerie cried out, landing right on her torn stomach. Eckhart rolled into a new crate of boxes and straight up slammed the back of his skull on them. His vision began to swim in circles around him. Between the blurriness and the incessant pounding, his consciousness was slipping. He fought to stay awake, but the ship shook once again and the world went to black.

 

-

 

Eckhart woke up to the sound of explosions. His ears were ringing and he tried to stand up. He tried squeeze open his eyes but they refused. Instead he rolled into a wooden crate. He attempted to breath but the rising bile in his throat threatened to make him hurl. He threw his mask off and pulled himself out of the human indented hole he made, heaving. After he got enough fresh oxygen, he tried one more time to open his eyes. He managed to crack them open, blinking the rising nausea out with black spots still dancing in his view. Eckhart scanned the area and saw a world of fire. More holes appeared on the Lumiere, the flames trickling on the wooden floors. The nausea he tried to force down rose into a full force of panic. He stumbled into a standing position, fumbling for his daggers. Where were the others? Within the sea of red he could make out long blonde hair lying on the ground. Ignoring the world spinning around him, he went over to grab Valerie. He checked her pulse. It was weak, but she was still alive. A large whirring sound came from beneath the holes, causing a slight tremor. Then a new wave of robots emerged from the depths of the holes. The nearest one spotted the two and immediately began to charge its laser toward them.

Eckhart cursed again. If he found the scientist that produced all these robots first, he was going to strangle him. The Resistance can kill him later, not before. He pushed Valerie toward the pile of crates he was in earlier and dove in after her. The laser flew right over their heads and punctured a hole in the smoke. He sneaked a glance and saw the robot follow the others instead of chasing them. He didn't know if that was good or bad news. They weren’t going to last long against lasers and rockets, but it gave Eckhart time to generate a new plan. The first initial impact with the crates did not go away. In fact, the wooziness was only getting worse. He grimaced, digging his nails deep into his palms to focus on that instead of the obvious signs of a concussion forming. He didn’t have time to lie down. They needed to find Aidan and Mihile as soon as possible. The faster they're found, the faster these robots can die, which will make Eckhart’s day right now. He heard a groan and looked back to where he pushed Valerie. She was still on the ground. Her eyes are wide open, gazing at nothing. He checked Valerie over. The red bandage Mihile made was already soiled, seeping into the pirate’s black jacket as well.

"Valerie, where are you?" he asked. She looked over at Eckhart, squinting.

"Uh," she replied, "the Lumiere. Duh. Ah got a hole on mah side, not amnesia."

Good, at least Valerie's not in shock. She didn’t look deterred from the pain at all. In fact, she looked down right angry, a fire blazing in her purple eyes. Valerie then sat up and pulled out her dual pistols, reloading them with giant golden bullets.

“Capt’n Kyrin said not to use these, but seein’ as ’m probably about to fuckin’ die, ah can tolerate her yellin’ at me from mah grave,” she muttered.

“Die after this mess is over with,” Eckhart responded back.

Valerie managed to wheeze a laugh out, “Heh. So ya do got a sense of humor, Chief.”

He scoffed. Eckhart lost vision of the two Heroes, but he could only determine that they were out of commission. He summoned a tiny bat and let it fly up into the air. He closed his eyes and let the bat’s vision become his eyes. The purple bat bypassed all the marching robots, scanning the deck for signs of any allies. Eckhart saw that the two Heroes got thrown further onto the opposite side of the deck. Luminous was defending Aran from robots by teleporting as a distraction. Aran had went behind cover, who was attempting to reset what appeared to be a twisted leg. He’ll help them later when his own group wasn’t about to get annihilated in the process. He spotted various Alliance members getting flanked by robots. At least they remained in their five people groups for support. But, he also saw a lot of stragglers separated from their groups, fighting off hordes. Off to the side, he spotted a Resistance member getting trampled to bits by the swarming robots. Eckhart grimaced, fighting his will to dismiss his bat on the spot. May Rhinne watch over them. The entrance to the ship was protected by Oz, Kanna, an archer explorer, and Luka. They all set up barriers and summons to prevent entry inside where the Empress was. The bat continued, searching for Mihile and Aidan.

The bat was able to spot two dots of yellow and red through the smoke. The two got pushed much further than Eckhart and Valerie, landing right in the storm of it all. Aidan and Mihile were back to back, sending out purple and yellow light to counter the blues and red ones. They refused to let any of them within their vicinity, which they circled off with a dark aura. However, Mihile was kneeling, struggling to stand up again while swinging his blade. The lights were only attracting more of the robots. Eckhart flashed open his eyes, dismissing the bat and standing up immediately. He stumbled a bit in the process. He leaned against the side of the crates, feeling the lasers tearing though the wood one piece at a time. When his view stopped twirling stars in his face, he took a deep breath and stood up.

“The fuck is happenin’-” Valerie spewed out with worry when Eckhart motioned for her to quiet.

“Defend yourself,” Eckhart clipped. Not waiting for a reply, he jumped over the boxes. He hopped across many heads of robots to get to where he spotted the two. He theorized that the adrenaline rush will stave off the throbbing in his head for now.

Many turned their attention away from the boxes to shoot at him, but got disabled by Eckhart’s daggers. He spent a great amount of his mana dodging beams and summoning bats as his needed to save his stars. The amount of flips he did in midair was making the dull ache in his head much more prominent. But between the headache and the never-ending death rays, Eckhart chose the lesser of the two evils. He worked close range, paving his way toward Aidan and Mihile. The Lumiere shook again. He was ready for it this time.

He let the ship move him before rolling onto the ground and lodging his dagger into the floor. He let the momentum of his body swing him back and forth under the weapon. The ship leaned forward, losing altitude. He hung on as robots flew by him, rocketing off the deck and toward the ground. He looked up, grabbing a chain in his pocket in case he had to catch Valerie. She had summoned mini octopi to suction themselves onto the ship while holding her in place as well. She gave him thumbs up. Eckhart put the chain away and continued to the edge of a hole by using his two daggers to descend. The ship finally began to fall backwards and elevated the area back to a flat angle. Eckhart stood up and stumbled over to the two stragglers.

Mihile had jabbed his sword into the Lumiere as the robots had flew off the ship, holding onto the sword and for life. He gripped onto Aidan as the mage was blasting away robots that were sliding too close for comfort. Once the orientation of the ship leveled out and the robots gone, Aidan let go of Mihile. He dropped down to the ground, muttering about never taking flat ground for granted. When Mihile looked up to find Eckhart crouched next to his sword, he smiled at the man with casualness.

“Good to see you again, Chief Eckhart,” Mihile said. Despite the color on his face now a pastry white, Mihile’s warm smile struck Eckhart with awe. He looked so serene, even with soot and blood splattered on his armor. He checked out Mihile’s leg once more. The red cloak stuck right onto the burnt thigh, serving as a current replacement for the skin. It was going to be a tedious process when they would have to separate it from the throbbing muscles. But for now, it was protecting Mihile from further damage.

“Chief Eckhart, where’s Val?” Aidan piped up, also in relief to find Eckhart.

“Hiding. She's safe,” Eckhart assured him. He tried to stand up, only for the world to spin upside on him and make him stumble. He felt strong arms wrap around his torso. The adrenaline passed, making Eckhart take in the full extent of his exhaustion. Everything was sore and the headache became the most prominent thing he could hear.

“Chief Eckhart?” Mihile asked, probing him for any injuries. Eckhart tried to fight him off, but he couldn't pull Mihile's arm away. His arms felt like jelly. Mihile's gloved hands went to the back of his head and Eckhart hissed,

“What were you doing jumping around with a concussion?” Mihile exclaimed, hand pulled back to see blood seeping out from the back of Eckhart’s skull.

“My job,” Eckhart said, extracting himself from Mihile’s grasp. His head started swimming once more, but managed to set himself upright.

“Not with that!” his partner was already slicing off another part of his cloak with his dagger. Mihile was about to wrap the makeshift bandage around his head, but Eckhart grabbed his wrist. He took the red material from him, glaring as he made the headband.

“Says the one-legged warrior,” Eckhart spat back. It was spiteful without purpose, but he couldn't help it. Here Mihile was criticizing him about fighting with injuries. Hypocrite. Unbelievable. And yet that was Mihile, worrying about others more than himself.

“Alright you two lovebirds, let’s stop fighting like a married couple for a second and go find Valerie,” Aidan smirked. Mihile and Eckhart turned to the teenager and asked respectively.

"Lovebirds?”

“Married couple?”

“Oh, come on!” the Battle Mage smiled, “It's so obvious. It’s just a matter of time before you two decide to confess."

Mihile coughed, turning away to hide the red tint in his cheeks. Eckhart’s face was about the same shade as Mihile’s. He wanted his mask back. He cooled his features to get back on track.

“We’re not talking about this,” Eckhart glowered at Aidan, who only shrugged in amusement.

Mihile nodded, going back into leader mode, “That’s right. We need to regroup with Valerie and find other-”

Right then, the Lumiere began to shake once more. Eckhart could only groan in exasperation when the entire surface rumbled to life. The ship tilted once again, and he rolled onto the ground. He jabbed a dagger into the deck and watched the Lumiere tilt into a dangerously new angle.

“Why do we keep tipping?!” Aidan exclaimed, holding onto Mihile’s hand once more. His question was answered when a wave of explosions rumbled throughout the ship. The three saw blazing smoke rise from the hull of the ship. Eckhart glanced past the smoke, only to feel another wave of nausea kick in, and not from his headache this time. Amidst the new smoke came out crawling several huge red robots twice the size of Mushmom. More sounds of pounding echoed in the stern of the Lumiere as well, boding only trouble. Before Eckhart could even process the idea of the sheer size of them, something fell too close to the group. Shrapnel flew at them but Aidan’s summoned out purple lightning to disarm them. The ground began to crack and Mihile hauled Aidan up in the direction of the main cabin. The wooden planks almost gave out completely to the heavy mass of the fallen robot. Eckhart had already bounced back to solid ground, sending bats after the red robot. The bats flew at the machine, but only managed to slice one arm off.

The robot stood up. The three all stood up and held out their weapons, ready to engage in battle. However, the robot seemed to ignore them and turned away from them, walking to the bow of the ship.

“Uh, nice work?” Aidan said in confusion. Mihile and Eckhart looked at each other. Eckhart then followed the robot toward the bow of the ship and paled even further. Several of the robots already grouped together on the front. They were catching remaining robot units and piling them into a metal wall. As the wall got heavier, the Lumiere sank a little bit lower to the ground. Behind the three, rumbling robot steps entered the fray. The robots that landed near the stern made their way toward the front. Eckhart spotted many magic skills, arrows, and weapons targeting the robot miles away. Many of the Alliance’s skills only sliced or dented the armor. None of their attacks could reach their internal cores. With the march of the red robots towards the bow, the Lumiere went off kilter again.

“They’re trying to sink us!" Mihile paled. They all had the same thought, because the attacks increased in a panicked ferocity. In the distance, Eckhart could spot a blue dragon and white Pegasus circling the robots. Magic and arrows flew at them in an attempt to distract the robots from their objectives.

“For a last ditch effort, this is a good one,” Aidan mumbled.

“Then let's do ours. We need to intercept the ones coming from the back before they can outweigh the ship and make it fall,” Mihile said.

Eckhart pulled out his remaining stars. The two nodded in unison and made their way opposite the tilt. It was a hard climb, with the Lumiere swaying back and forth. There were no army of robots in sight, which made for a somewhat peaceful journey. Eye of the storm, Eckhart grimaced.

Along the way, they finally met up by other Alliance members who had the same idea. Eckhart immediately recognized one of his original team mates, Felix. The fire poison Arch Mage looked as surprised. There was a small gash right under his blond hair, but aside from the ash and dirt, he looked okay.

“Chief Eckhart,” Felix exclaimed, “Boy am I happy to see you! I mean, minus your broken head.”

Eckhart tried not to instinctively touch the bandage around his head. There was going to be too many people asking about this and he did not enjoy that aspect at all.

“Everyone totally got split up by those bombs, and I was really worried. There were too many robots to handle with one person. I managed to find myself another group who were also scattered. Looks like you did too.”

The group in question, two Resistance members and a Shadower, nodded to the Chief Knights. The Shadower handed Mihile and Eckhart white elixirs. Aidan was chatting with the Resistance members, who also gave him some more blue elixirs. They both thanked them and drank it down. Eckhart felt his head get clearer. The pounding also simmered down a bit, though still prevalent. He spotted Mihile testing his leg, putting some pressure on it. His face was still contorted, but at least same color has come back to his face.

“Alright,” Mihile announced as they all crept toward the nearest red robot, “We have to stall the machines in the middle of the ship, at least until the front of the ship is clear. If you have a good chance of pushing them off, then do it. We also have another scattered member who is near the edge. She should be hiding near some-”

“Take that ya hunk piece of metal shit!” a war cry broke through the atmosphere as a rattling fusillade of bullets followed the cry. The red robot that was in front of them got pushed back with a stream of yellow beams. Taking advantage of the robot’s distraction, Felix sent out a fire ball that exploded on impact. It dented the back of its armor, knocking the robot off balance. Together, Mihile and the Shadower rushed the robot to the nearest railing. The two Resistance members helped them tip the robot over, sending it flying off into the ocean below. Eckhart peered over and found Valerie with an entire squad of octopi behind her, guns smoking.

“Val!” Aidan said, relieved.

“Ah’ll make sure none of those fuckers get past this side, so hurry up and make the ship stop movin’ ‘round so damn much,” she grinned, gripping her injured side. Everyone nodded their thanks and continued toward where multicolored lights were dancing around. So far, a lot of the Alliance has done a good job either pushing the robots off the ship or binding them. The group split up once again to get as many robots out of commission as possible. They stayed within range of each other in case they needed help. Mihile took this chance to go to the nearest fallen robot, jamming his sword into the ground. The impact of yellow light and sent the robot off the ship. Eckhart assisted Aidan in forcing robots onto the rails, flipping them off. They moved onto the second fallen one.

“See this?” Aidan asked, sending dark chains out of his staff to wrap around the legs of the fallen robot, “No lasers pointed and fired on us. It’s a miracle. Their goal is to try to get to the other side. Too bad we have to completely destroy these, because I know Luka would love taking a look at how they operate-”

Eckhart saw the arms of the robot twitch before raising, aiming it at the back of Aidan’s head. The hand receded into the arm, a red light and whirring noise emitting from the hole. A mangled, static-like voice spoke from the robot.

_OBJECTIVE CHANGED. ATTACK MODE: ACTIVATE._

Eckhart immediately grabbed Aidan’s cloak and pulled them down. The robot fired, igniting a huge beam of red into the sky.

“Come on!” Aidan yelled in exasperation, already up on his feet, backing up and twirling his staff into an infinity sign. A cloaked demon then came into existence, slicing off the robot’s arm. Eckhart ran into the robot’s range and forced his shadows into one point before jabbing it downwards. The robot’s eyes were still glowing though. It took its other firearm to fire when Aidan’s summon appeared behind it and chopped the neck off in half. Soon Eckhart was hearing sounds of panic all over the deck. The robots seemed to have gone aggro and opened fire on all Alliance members.

“That was my fault. I jinxed it. Now the giant robots are firing their lasers,” Aidan grabbed Eckhart and teleported them to the next set of rampaging robots. He closed his eyes, waiting for the nausea of teleporting to go away. He then threw a couple dark covered stars at one of the robot’s laser arms. The stars stuck, disabling the laser. Aidan moved up to the robot and hit it with a quadruple combo of purple light. The cloaked spawn with a scythe appeared once again, ready to behead the robot. However, the robot was ready for it and batted the summon away with it remaining arm. Aidan tried to teleport out of range of the robot, but the robot’s arm swung back around and hit him square on. Aidan used his staff to block the attack, but the force still sent him crashing a long way from Eckhart. Despite Aidan’s direct blasts to its body, the robot’s armor was only dented. The robot's armor was too strong to pierce. These weren't the junk that the first wave had. While smaller in number, they had the power of overpower two Alliance members. The Chief Knight cursed and forced himself to go invisible. With the robot trying to find a next target, Eckhart snuck around the robot to try and stab it from the back. But, the robot’s head turned around 180 degrees right at him. Its eyes ignited a bright red.

_HEAT SIGNATURE DETECTED. TARGET ACQUIRED._

Eckhart hastily jumped into the air as the robot swung down, arm puncturing the wooden deck. He ignited one of his daggers into a purple flame and threw it against the robot’s now vulnerable neck. Eckhart let himself go as far into the air as possible before accelerating his body toward the robot. He landed both his feet on the dagger’s hilt, forcing the dagger to go through all the robot’s neck. He back flipped off the now decommissioned machine and crouched down. He crouched down and felt everything go black for one second. He saw black smoke in the corners of his vision. Shit, did he over exert himself? Everything now was going blurry and disorienting. He clenched his teeth to try and focus on another pain. He refused to go down right here, not while he could hear people yelling in the distance. He forced his eyes open, just in time to see a bright streak of hot red coming right at him. Eckhart dodged, feeling an intense pain rip into his right shoulder. The world went red for a second before he could sense the numbness moving through his arm. He felt blood start running where he bit the inside of his mouth. The sensational burning in his shoulder wasn’t helping him either. He didn’t need to look at his shoulder to see the fact that it was currently sticking to his seared clothes. He rolled into a battle position, taking out the remaining stars in his pocket. Eckhart tried to imbue them with his dark powers and found that none of them were getting empowered. He was out of mana.

The ground was rumbling with an even fiercer intensity as the machine crept closer. Eckhart forced his body to move, but his legs refused to listen. He scanned for any near Alliance members and found that they’ve gotten scattered across the deck. Many of them were down on the floor as well, not moving. There was no one in range that was alive. The distant screaming become a numbing static in his ears. He hit his legs to try to get some mobility in them, but his body still seemed to be in shock from getting hit with such a blast. He threw his stars at the robot’s arm, but without any empowered aura they were easily knocked away. The robot’s arm slammed into Eckhart, forcing him onto the ground and eliciting a cry of pain. His burnt shoulder got sandwiched between the ground and a ton of metal. With the other arm, the robot took its time to and aim load up its laser, soulless circles watching him squirm. Eckhart took out his last dagger and stabbed the arm encasing him, but it only caused the robot to crush him more. The lungs in his chest were running out of air. He felt something near his chest crack. His vision was swimming once again. The world began to blacken, and Eckhart stopped trying to breathe. Everything was getting warmer with each passing moment as Eckhart lay there. He couldn’t even feel the pressure of the robot’s arm anymore as it dulled into a quiet numbness. Even the pounding in his arm was nothing more than a small hum in the summer night. Yes. He liked the quiet. The quiet was where there was nobody but him. He closed his eyes then, letting the blackness swallow him up completely. There was so much he wanted to do, but he couldn't find himself to remember what. He served the Empress. His Captain Knight can replace him. He’s taught her everything she needs to know to succeed his position as Chief Knight. She’s learned at a much faster rate than he could ever hope to achieve in his dwindling lifespan. She’ll be fine. And he’ll be fine. He's a soldier. Soldiers fight for the future. Not for themselves. He forgot the feeling of anger, of vengeance towards the Black Wings. He let go of the dagger.

“ECKHART!”

Suddenly, a radiant yellow light erupted in Eckhart’s closed eyes instead of the red he was expecting. He heard the blast go off, but didn’t hear it impact against anything on the ship. The robot’s arm pinning him down was gone, making Eckhart gasp out for air. He coughed out from the lack of oxygen, trying to refill his lungs. Eckhart struggled to sit up and finally managed to get himself to lean on his arms. Through the white spots dancing in his vision, he blinked them out to see what hit the robot. His view was still blurry, but he could make out the brilliant blonde hair and white armor. It shined against the robot as they both collided into the ground. He saw the figure stand right up to summon up a large yellow sword and slam it right into the robot’s neck.

Eckhart tried to reach out, but his arms refused to move. He could only watch as Mihile’s back crept further away from view. He felt a firm hand on his uninjured shoulder and froze. Eckhart tried to pull a dagger out on instinct, but found he was weaponless. He turned around to see that Aidan was right behind him. The Battle mage was completely disheveled, the tips of his hair burnt and half of his face charred. Without warning, he grabbed onto him and raised his dark staff, the orb glowing in a blue light.

“Come on Chief Eckhart, let’s get out of here,” before he could protest, Eckhart’s body became weightless as the teleport initiated. He shut his eyes and felt his body shift away from one plane to another. As soon as he felt his legs land back on solid ground, Aidan collapsed, taking Eckhart down with him. Eckhart whipped around in a slight panic, convinced that they were being ambushed. He winced at the sharp pain that contracted on many sides of his shoulders and neck. He looked up and his muscles eased as soon as he saw fellow Alliance members surrounding the two. Eckhart watched as Aidan was being carried away by Explorers. A mage was right by him, summoning a white glow that hovered over his body. He looked up to see a Cygnus Knight approaching him. He tried to stand up, but once again his legs refused to listen and he collapsed on his elbows. His body felt ready to tear his shoulder in half from the exerted effort. Eckhart squeezed his hands into a fist and waited for the pain to ebb away. He could feel the vibrations of the person approaching him as his face laid on the ground.

“Chief Eckhart!” He was immediately honed on that person. The voice was somewhat recognizable.

“Can you stand?” they asked. Eckhart nodded, not caring if they even saw his response. He forced himself in a sitting position, which caused another jolt of pain. Eckhart clenched his teeth and only caused himself to bite his own gums. The Cygnus Knight grabbed him around the torso, half walking him. His world was still in disorientation, so it took him a while to get his balanced adjusted. He checked his surroundings and found that Aidan had teleported him to the narrow sides. A good place to defend if the robots were trying to attack them here. Yet, fighting was the furthest thing that anybody could do. The smell of blood and burnt skin was rampant and he grimaced, covering his nose. When his head stopped spinning, he looked up and bit his lip at the sight of them. It was Irena’s Captain Knight. The student’s pale face was completely cut up and a makeshift wrap was bound around his brown hair. Eckhart could see a huge spot of red where his ear should be. Blood was seeping out of the cloth. His hands were also wrapped with bandages, bow nowhere to be seen.

“What happened?" Eckhart asked. He observed the area around. The deck was covered with unconscious Alliance members, on the verge of death. Bishops and Priests were attempting to keep them alive. Half of them weren’t even recognizable by how many of the robot’s laser beams tore right through them. Those that were savable didn’t look any better by the way their skin entangled with their singed armor. There was puss rising out from their bleeding scars. Eckhart forced himself to look away. He’s seen worse body mutilations in Kerning, but not on this scale. So many Alliance members dead or crippled for life. Eckhart grimaced. War wasn’t supposed to be pretty. He could only think of how the Empress would react to seeing so many lost lives.

“The robots attacked us, so we had no choice but to retreat. None of us have anything that can penetrate their systems," Irena's Captain Knight replied. Eckhart started to feel the effects of the burn run through the rest of his arm go numb. His mind even started to go numb, looking at his condition and the laid bodies on the deck. He pried himself of the Captain Knight, walking towards the sounds of fighting. He called out to the Chief Knight, but they faded into silence as his heart beat’s roar got louder and louder. Eckhart peered past the sea of injured Alliance members and only spotted smoke. Aidan teleported them quite a distance away, but they could still feel the vibrations. Eckhart then reached a couple of people peering out into the scene beyond. Most of them were out of commission, recently bandaged up.

One glance at the Chief Knight made people open up a path for him. His mask was gone, somewhere within the devastated deck, so he wasn’t sure what kind of face he had. He stepped up into the front and peered beyond the smoke. He could make out the square silhouettes of the robots causing rampage on the deck. Further out, very faint colored lights continued to dance in the sky. Irena’s Captain Knight soon caught up, easing his way through the crowd too.

“Who ordered the retreat?” Eckhart demanded.

The Wind Archer swallowed, “Chief Mihile did. He told the magicians to grab as my bodies as possible while he and the others covered us. The robots were knocking people out left and right-”

Eckhart clicked his tongue. He turned to the closet thief and opened out his hand.

“Your stars,” he barked, and the thief hastily dumped the rest of her stars into his open palm.

“You can’t be serious-” The Captain Knight stepped in front of him, raising his arms out front, “I can’t let you go out there Chief Eckhart. You can barely stand!"

“Move aside." Eckhart said, icy venom pouring out his mouth. He had no time for this. He was going to Mihile whether he had to fight Irena's Captain Knight or not. The Captain Knight flinched, but stayed still. The injured audience shuffled away from the inevitable blow up between them. Fellow Cygnus Knights crept closer, whether to stop or help him Eckhart wasn’t sure.

The Captain Knight tried to reason with him again, "Nobody here has enough mana to go against those robots. Their armor is too thick. Please wait here for reinforcements from the front-”

Stupid. Captain Knight couldn’t even see the flaw in his own logic. How does a warrior’s mana last longer than a mage like Aidan without potions if they’re using around the same rate? Mihile had something up his sleeve, and Eckhart had an ominous feeling about it. Eckhart and shoved the Captain Knight aside, heading toward the robots. He could feel a bit of his mana coming back, the stars in his hand resonating a dark aura. But, it wasn’t going to be enough to fight against whatever robots remained with Mihile and his group. Eckhart frowned and forced his legs into a sprint. At most they were about a hundred meters away.

He skidded to a stop as the Lumiere rumbled, parts of the deck cracking. If anyone thought the tilting was bad enough, the rickety back and forth of the ship was even worse now. Eckhart swayed his way toward the bow, rolling down the flight of stairs and onto the main deck. He side stepped the huge crater formed at the base of the stairs on time. He continued making his way toward the fight. Along the way, he spotted Felix again with some Resistance members pushing a robot off.

"Where's Mihile?" Eckhart shouted at the Arch Mage. Felix turned, blinked a few times, and pointed toward the yellow lights in the sky. After he checked to see if they needed any more help, he sent them off and went toward Mihile's direction. Red lights in the sky overtook the yellow and became more vibrant with each step he took. The lack of human bodies was only replaced by pools of red and some piles of flesh.

The smoke cleared out enough for Eckhart to spot the massive sizes of the robots shadowing the deck. That wasn’t the first thing he noticed though. High above them, six swords the size of Manon pointed up toward the sky. Right below, Mihile was backed up against the railing of the ship, two hands raised upwards with his sword. His leg somehow looked even more of a mess than before. The red bandage hung loose off his thigh. Open skin and cloth became indistinguishable from each other. Behind him were three Alliance members scattered on the ground. Eckhart couldn't tell if they were dead or not. There was a block of light around them, acting as a shield. Four large robots remained and surrounded Mihile with their laser arms aimed right at him. Eckhart eyes widened as he tried to process the amount of mana needed to summon those swords. Was Mihile even using mana? There is no warrior except for Aran could summon something so large, in a huge quantity as well. Was this Mihile’s trump card? To obliterate the robots along with himself? Eckhart cursed. What is Mihile thinking, ending his life like this?

“Mihile!” Eckhart shouted out. Immediately the robots turned their attention toward him instead of the bleeding warrior. Mihile whipped his head around at him in shock, blue eyes as wide as a Bubble fish. Good. Their attention was on him. He’ll activate haste and weave through their laser attacks. That’ll give Mihile time to deactivate the swords, grab the Alliance members, and use whatever power he’s using to run away-

The bright yellow swords in the sky turned upside down, blades pointed at the group. Mihile gave Eckhart a forlorn smile before swinging his sword down. Eckhart, heart now ripping out of his chest, activated haste and ran toward Mihile. He ignored the several large swords that were going to rain down on him within seconds. He reached out, trying to get Mihile to hold onto him. The distance between them was still too far and the swords were about ready to hit the deck. The entire area became blinded by the approaching light. Mihile raised his hand out, but not to grab on. A ball of light formed in his hand and he released it. Eckhart got hit straight on by the light and pushed backwards. As his body was enveloped in the intense glow, he saw Mihile open his mouth.

And the world erupted in white.

 

-  


Eckhart woke up to a blur of red and black. The lights were blinding him and he had to shut his eyes away from the brightness. He cracked them open again to see Irena's Captain Knight and what appeared to be a Bishop yelling over his body. The persistent shouting was not helping clear the ringing in his head right now. His body had shut down on him, and Eckhart was wondering how he even was able to move in the first place. Adrenaline most likely. Eckhart grumbled, not sure if they could him over their own voices.

The Bishop, equipped in a Dragon Tail set, placed a blue Elemental Staff over his body. She spoke wordless incantations and the staff began to glow red. Soon Eckhart felt at ease, letting the healing magic rejuvenate his body.

“Chief Eckhart, you’re okay!” The Captain Knight exclaimed. The archer looked way too pale, brown hair clinging to his sweaty, singed face. His eyes were glowing with happiness at least. The green bandage wrapped around his head was replaced with a proper gauze and medical cloth. The Bishop on the other hand was frowning at him. She was older than him, crow’s feet settling next to her ruby red eyes. They contrasted with her sickly yellow skin. Her black hair was also a mess, caked with dry blood. She saw him awake and sighed in relief, tossing the staff to the side.

“You could have at least waited for someone to heal you before you ran into the fire again. Honestly,” the Bishop started, “You two Chief Knights even left a crater in the ship! At least you saved a lot of people with that final blow. While there was a giant crater in the Lumiere, the entire area was clear of those death machines. Whatever you did to those robots, they got sliced completely in half. We were able to recover everyone faster and get reinforcements to the front.”

“Crater…?” Eckhart questioned the Bishop. He far as he remembered, he was taking down robots with Aidan and Mihile. He evaluated himself. Why was he on the ground? What made him make a crater in the Lumiere? And where were the two anyways-

Giant yellow swords flashed in his memory.

“Chief Mihile,” Eckhart rasped out, body jerking awake in response to his panic. He sat up too fast and ended up on the floor again, groaning. He remembered his burned shoulder, which felt ready to tear in half. He turned his head to find that his shoulder was in a makeshift sling to ease some of the pain. He attempted to stand up for a second time, only for steady hands to hold him on the ground. That only made Eckhart aggravated, trying to remove the hands. Heat emitted from the hands, warming up the Chief Knight as a way to de-stress the man. He felt the opposite of calm. Then, the Captain Knight clasped his hands down as well. He glared at the archer, who only smiled sheepishly.

“Please stay down,” the Bishop asked, “I don’t want to get fired because I let you walk around with a concussion. And a third degree burn all over your shoulder. And a broken rib. Or several. And I’m telling you right now that there is no way to heal a concussion other than rest and small movements.”

“…,” Eckhart didn’t answer and clicked his tongue instead.

“I apologize, but Chief Irena did insist on making sure you get rest after…uh,” he went silent, looking away from Eckhart. He felt a stone drop in his stomach.

“After what?” he asked, voice edging close to shouting. Immediately that pit transformed into bubbling impatience.

“We…don’t know,” the Captain Knight answered, staring at the ground.

“Don’t know?”

“Chief Mihile was in critical condition after we recovered you and the others. He was already bleeding out faster than the Bishops can heal and-”

Irena’s student swallowed hard, “I’m sorry, Chief Eckhart. I don’t know.”

His grip loosened enough that Eckhart could push them off, but he couldn't find the strength to. His initial anger ebbed away into a ringing silence.

_“I’m sorry.”_

What kind of last words were those? Pathetic. Eckhart almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Mihile got what he wanted. Jumped right into death so that others wouldn’t have to. There was a bitter taste in his mouth. Next to him were more lying bodies, some attended by Bishops and Priests. Just how many more would have died if Mihile didn’t order a retreat? He glanced around him and found that Alliance members were everywhere, finding condolence. Cygnus Knights and Resistance were even patting each other on the back and hugging. Now that was a miracle. After near decimation from both sides did they attempt to reconcile with one another. The numbness in his shoulder seemed to have spread into his mind because here, he didn’t feel anything. Eckhart almost thought he would be mad, or even remorse for all the lives lost in this one battle. Instead, he felt out of place, observing this scene from broken lens. Well, this was best, wasn’t it? He could keep fighting, keep serving. He didn’t need attachments to drag him down. They only bring unnecessary burdens. He would soldier on as the Empress's chess piece.

_“Well, I don’t think that’s all true. It’d be easy to keep a distance, because it wouldn’t hurt. But pain makes you who you are, that you care. People strengthen your resolve to serve and protect.”_

Eckhart stared up, reminiscing in that memory. Mihile always had something to say for everything. The red and black ominous sky was replaced with a shining blue and white day. He frowned. Eckhart missed the sky that used to burn a bloody red. That at least told him that danger was still around, ready to sink its claws into its next victim. The clear sky now was telling him that everything was okay. He didn’t want to be at peace though. Eckhart’s well aware that his deep blue sky was somewhere far, far away from here, where even he couldn’t reach it. That sky with the overwhelming sunlight that he refused to look away from no matter how painful it was. He never knew when he would wake up and find it gone, replaced with the black, stormy clouds that he gave in to a long time ago-

“I’ve got work,” Eckhart announced, causing the Bishop to jump out of her skin. Irena's Captain Knight must has left, judging from the empty spot where he used to be. He needed to get back to work. There was so much do to, the battle was over and he would need to count the bodies. It was his duty. If he couldn’t even perform such a simple task, he was useless. The Bishop frowned, not seeming to understand his inner distress.

She said, “the only work you’re doing is laying right here and resting. I’m not going to heal your shoulder if you rip it in half, again.”

“The Empress needs me,” he continued, repeating a mantra from long ago. Duty over yourself.

“Nu-uh, my godly Bishop powers overrule you,” the Bishop emphasized this point by placing her staff right on his chest. A red light emitted from the weapon, sending warmth all through him. If his body wasn’t already drained, he would have described this as a sleeping spell. It was forcing all his muscles to go slack. It probably was though, because even his eyes were drooping and he felt the urge to yawn. Eckhart tried his best to glare at the Bishop, but she only shrugged and tossed her black hair behind her ear.

“I know it’s not for me, an Explorer, to meddle in the inner workings of the Cygnus Knights,” the Bishop gave him a thoughtful look, “But I think the Empress would be sad if you overworked yourself for her sake. And it’s just not because you’re her solider...”

Eckhart was barely holding onto her words, passing through his brain like paper. He lifted his hand to touch his hand, replaced with proper gauze.

“Wh-” Eckhart whispered, trying to stay as conscious as possible, “Where is Chief Mihile?”

The Bishop looked at him with a strange look, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be angry about it. That took too much energy from him anyways.

“Orbis.”

Oh.

Hell.

 

-

 

The next few weeks after the battle was a mess, to put it in the simplest terms. The remaining Chief Knights worked in coordination with the Alliance recover. The missions and trips flew by in a blur as Eckhart kept himself in overwork mode. He jumped onto any missions, trying to readjust himself. He still feels a faint ringing in his ears from the Lumiere. Neinheart gave him a dirty glare, but handed Eckhart the reports anyways. With his injuries, the tactician had attempted to place Eckhart off duty for two days. He snuck out of his quarters within five hours of the probation.

Now recovered, Eckhart sat on Mihile’s old lavender colored couch. The curtains shut off any source of light. One lone candle lit the room. He flipped through several reports written by Neinheart and the other group leaders. Everyone one else was sleeping save for him. No one other than Neinheart knew he’s in Mihile’s room going through his files. It would have given the Cygnus Knights false hope. Other files, stuffed into color coded binders, balanced on the wooden coffee table. He had Mihile’s key and the seals above the wooden door disappeared for him. He practically lived there already, looking at his folded clothes on Mihile’s bed. It was too strange sleeping on his own mattress these nights. Eckhart sipped at his tea, frowning. He read through the files dedicated to Alliance losses, deaths, and MIA. He helped mark down the important details for future reference. He trusts that the tactician has read through each of them several times. At least reading was keeping his mind focused instead of wandering toward-

Eckhart turned to glance at the fourteen dog tags on the table in alphabetical order. He rubbed his eyes and placed the folders down, the sight of his students burned into his mind. After waking up from the deep sleep he was under on the Lumiere, Eckhart put himself to work. Neinheart took one look at his shoulder, told him to not overwork himself, and ushered him away. The tactician didn’t have time to argue with an able body. He looked as tired as Eckhart did, hair down and monocle broken. Oz and Irena didn’t receive any serious injuries, but Hawkeye was going to be crutches for at least week. The Chief Knights all looked at each other in remorse before heading to the deck where the bodies were.

Eckhart, ignoring the dulling ache in his shoulder, began searching for his students. He tried to shove down the nausea when he picked up the gold metal tag from his one of his student’s body. Alyssa had no chance against the bombs. Her lower half got obliterated, leaving her out to bleed to death. A gentle soul more attuned to nature and thus an expert at stealth missions. She was 19. Ivar, another student, blasted to death. The body was unrecognizable. It was a miracle the dog tag remained, the indented letters melded from the intense heat of the lasers. Ivar had promising future, if he learned how to stop flirting with every single Dawn Warrior. 22.

The ride from the Lumiere back to Ereve on that day was quiet. Not even Hawkeye made any jokes when he picked up the surviving members on his ship. He was silently counting all the dog tags some of his student Thunder Breakers had as he drove. It was a lot. That wasn’t even counting the number of injured of their own and the rest of the Alliance. He cleaned the blood and dirt off them earlier and even attempted to drill Ivar’s name back into place. The family deserved that much, after all. An honorable reminder that their son fought and died for a righteous cause. For the Empress. The bile in his throat didn't disappear. Once the tags were handed to the family members, they would prepare their funerals. Mihile's Captain Knight was going to replace him in the ritual-

Eckhart tried to pick the cup back up and put it to his lips. However, he didn’t realize his hand was shaking until a bit of tea splashed on the table. He put the cup down. He tried again, this time letting the warm, floral taste run through his body. He sifted through the files until he reached the Cygnus Knights section. He took the neat cyan binder out from underneath the towering stack and flipped to the page. In bold letters, “Chief Knight of Light: Mihile Medical Files and History” appeared on top.

The medical report was written and dated by Neinheart. The tactician’s small signature left in the right-hand corner of the first page. Eckhart started to read the most recent report done a couple of days ago. The pages usually updated weekly, but Neinheart decided for a daily one. The tactician was most likely updating on another journal to print in the actual file. Eckhart got to the x-ray scans with annotations from the doctor and grimaced. He catered several broken ribs, a third-degree leg burn torn from overuse, and a punctured stomach. It was a miracle Mihile didn’t die from blood loss. Mihile got hospitalized at Orbis. The Alliance did not extend out to Ossyria, so relations were neutral at most. But, Cygnus Knights had access to the area only as scouts. As long as the Knights weren’t disturbing the fairy populace, Mihile would get all the help he needed.

The only problem was the credibility of any of these doctors. Neinheart began searching for a surgeon least likely to sell Mihile’s organs. It was impossible to find a doctor not involved in the black markets. Eckhart was all too familiar with the inner workings of underground Orbis and sighed. Of course, Neinheart was full aware of the risks Orbis posed. He wasn’t that trusting to leave Mihile up to a doctor in somewhere as seedy as Orbis. Grendel the Really Old agreed to coordinate with the doctor to assist in helping Mihile. Neinheart had already arranged for extra available Knights to watch over Ellinia.

Eckhart put Mihile’s medical file back into the binder and placed it on the coffee table. He shook his head. He was headed to Edelstein in two hours. He needed to prepare. Now was not the time to think about their future.

 

-

 

Eckhart was in the scrapyards of Edelstein, surveying the area for Black Wings. Although the Black Wings were obliterated, the Alliance was wary of a counterattack. Just like they couldn’t be too careful in trying to record Gelimer’s death. Last time Maple world wrote off a Commander as dead, the Black Wings rose to power and overtook Edelstein. According to witnesses on Victoria Island, Gelimer’s escape pod fell into the ocean. Cygnus Knights stationed in various locations were currently trying to analyze the reports. So far, Gelimer’s pod had reached approximately 500 kilometers away from Black Heaven. It then erupted and the pieces fell near Orbis territory. The Nautilus and its crew members were on duty in finding his body. It would still take weeks to get any signal in the vastness of the sea.

Eckhart paused for a brief second before sighing. He had to focus. He already wasted too much time thinking about their losses. As long as the Empress still stands and Black Wings remain, he will continue to fight and sacrifice. He continued to scan the area. He still had a few words he wanted to exchange with them. Aside Gelimer’s remaining robot’s roaming around, no signs of Black Wings activity were clear. He contemplated whether to search through the scrapyard or not when his ear piece rang to life. He answered it, leaving his hiding spot to reach higher ground. The last thing Eckhart wanted was for eavesdropping on the Alliance communications channel. Information about happened within Black Heaven are being kept at a confidential level. This was keep the level of panic to a minimum. The Alliance was already shaky enough with the high amount of deaths. The citizens didn't need paranoia about another war ship and blame the Alliance. That would tear the Alliance apart even further.

“Chief Knight,” Eckhart spoke, scaling up the iron metal of an abandoned construction site.

“Chief Eckhart, I need you in Orbis immediately,” Neinheart said. He felt his heart sink. Eckhart never went to Orbis after Black Heaven. He din't think he could compose himself if he saw Mihile bed stricken. He didn't want to imagine the many IV lines in him, on the verge of death. Not dead, not dead, not dead, he had to repeat himself, realizing that he was breathing harder than usual. It wasn’t the climb that made him heave through his lungs. The truth was that Mihile was someone he let in too close, basking in the sunlight that was him. He couldn’t even think about the what ifs, because Eckhart’s heart would shut down on him. He didn’t need to lose another person he trusted with his whole heart.

“What happened?” his voice shook, already jumping right down from the building he was scaling. He ran as fast as he could to Edelstein port, ignoring the robots. For someone who tried avoiding Mihile in the hospital for a week, he knew how to drop everything he was doing for him. Damn Mihile.

“He passed the critical stage and is currently resting,” Neinheart replied, not missing a beat, “Yet, Grendel’s student found something strange."

“Strange?"

“What the Bishop found in Mihile was that his brain activity doesn’t match average wave patterns at all. That-”

Eckhart almost felt Neinheart’s communication ear piece ripped away from him. Distorted static surrounded the channel. He could hear Neinheart’s protests as he listened further into the ear piece.

“Look. Chief Mihile’s brain is currently going through some weird stuff,” he recognized the voice. It's the same Bishop that helped him on the Lumiere.

The Bishop began, "and it’s either because he’s going through a phase in his healing period that’s making his brain go berserk or..

She paused, “uh, yea, there might be another person living in Mihile’s brain.”

 

-

 

Three hours later Eckhart sighed. He stepped off the discreet ship that bypassed Black Wing’s surveillance. The Ossyrian nation had infinite knowledge of the medical arts. The Empress was not risking losing the leader of the Cygnus Knights. Mihile was too much of an influential and headstrong speaker. Whatever condition Mihile was in, Orbis would have the answer.

He took the Black Wings hat off and slid it under his cloak. He made his way toward one of the larger buildings beyond the guild hall. He blended in with the shadows as the sun set over the floating land mass. He bypassed many pedestrians and took many shortcuts. Fairies and humans alike who did see him immediately hurried on their way.

Eckhart found himself in front of a large elliptical white building with a blue roof. Intricate curves and vines decorated its massive walls. A red cross stretched above it, several white wings spread out against the darkening sky. He walked to the front of the building and stepped on the blue teleporter. He closed his eyes, feeling the tug of the teleporter as it placed him inside the hospital. Eckhart blinked a few times, allowing himself to adjust his eyes to the sudden white fairy lights.

“Excuse me human, but visiting hours are closed.”

Eckhart turned to the reception area, where a tiny blue haired fairy sat. She tapped her fingers against the white marbled desk. Her wings puffed out in impatience. She flopped her wrist at Eckhart.

“Now shoo before I call security on you-"

“Miss Elaine, Chief Knight Eckhart is actually aiding us in tonight’s endeavor. I would be in your favor if you were to let him on through.”

From the right wing of the hospital, three people emerged from the dark corridor. Grendel’s body floated in midair, followed by Neinheart and the Empress. Grendel looked as ethereal as ever, his white bear floating in the air. The others were in another realm. The Empress’s red eyes are prevalent, which she attempted to cover with a pink handkerchief. Neinheart even looked a bit disheveled with his hair in a loose ponytail. Eckhart didn’t comment but instead bowed down to the three. The Empress smiled a bit, sliding the handkerchief in the pockets of her dress. Grendel and Neinheart’s remained nodded back. Eckhart could see the tacticians body unfurl from its tenseness.

“Right this way Chief Eckhart,” Neinheart cut straight to the point. He led Eckhart and the others deeper into the abyss of the hallway. Eckhart looked ahead and located one lone light coming further down the hallway. The dull yellow lights splayed against the patient’s room and across to the other side. He could make out the translucent shadow of a curtain and a tall mirror. He frowned behind his mask. That must have been the mirror Grendel the Old used to extract Commander Orchid’s memories. According to the reports, one Alliance member had to enter the mirror to seek out her memories. Eckhart didn’t like where this was headed.

“You’ve been summoned for a reason,” Neinheart said, “Chief Mihile is an essential pillar to our cause. We cannot afford to lose such a figure. If Grendel’s student is correct, Chief Mihile’s mind is currently in a coma. The other Chief Knights are too unstable to take on such a task. We cannot let any other Alliance member know of this. We're keeping this information in the Cygnus Knights circle only. We must know who is inside Mihile’s body, if not his mind.”

Eckhart really, really didn’t like where this was headed. Though he supposes Neinheart is correct, as usual.

Oz has been on leave, visiting her parents. She is the one out of the rest of them that blames herself the most for the death of a student. Black Heaven only decimated her will. Irena has currently occupied herself in overseeing the Erevian Star ritual. She has to transport a lot of dead bodies back to Ereve. Hawkeye is out of commission as he shattered his leg during the battle. He isn’t well enough to pass the trials that are within Mihile’s memories. Eckhart wishes that Neinheart gave it to anybody else but him. The emotions he kept locked away are threatening to spill out. Duty over yourself, he told himself.

The four visitors entered the only lit room of the hospital as Grendel proceeded first. What Eckhart first noticed is the large number of machines situated next to the bed. A large glass pane separates them from Mihile. His face is paler than normal, breathing too slowly through an oxygen mask. Scars over his face have been stitched. They are already seeping into the red areas of Mihile’s skin. Several wires have inserted themselves within his arms and the metal framed bed. The only thing covering him is a green wool blanket draped over the mess of wires. Eckhart looked over to the heart monitor, the signs showing Mihile’s heartbeat. He balls his fist in his hands to stop himself from reaching out instinctively. Neinheart and the Empress do not look surprised by Mihile’s condition. Eckhart supposed they’ve had time to get used to seeing their best Knight on the verge of death for weeks.

What Eckhart tried to notice last is a looming golden mirror placed near the back. The blue stone glowed for a few seconds before dimming again, repeating the motion. Inside the mirror was a portal, the inside revealing a sandy cliff in a desert storm. It’s Perion. He frowned. He only knows about bits and pieces of Mihile, seeing as he never liked talking about his past. He only knows, according to Neinheart, that his father hailed from Perion. He also has no idea what Mihile did there. Though he doesn’t know if this is even Mihile’s memories are not, if that Bishop was correct. Guess it’s his job to find out now, Eckhart wanted to say with a bitter laugh.

Eckhart wastes no time in going toward the glass pane. He opened the door leading to the opposite side of the white room. Grendel floated behind as Neinheart and the Empress took seats near the door. He crossed the room while avoiding looking at Mihile any further. The closer he gets to the dying man the more he wants to Dark Sight away from this. He didn’t expect anything to come close to Lana, but then Mihile leapt right into Eckhart’s life. He left them both defenseless against each other. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the man, somewhere in a cloud of grass and blue skies instead of a white room. Grendel made a noise in the back of his throat and Eckhart opened his eyes. The old man gestured toward the mirror.

“Shall we proceed Chief Eckhart?” Grendel asked. Eckhart nodded behind his mask. He turned toward the center of the mirror and tries not to think. He reached his hand out to touch the mirror. Instead of a cold solid sensation, the hand went straight into the mirror. A weird tingling clutches at his hand. He dropped his hand and gathered some stars from his pockets. He threw some buffs onto himself for precautionary measures. Eckhart breathed, closed his eyes, and walked.

Eckhart opened his eyes and felt the raw power of the sun bearing down on him in the sandy dunes of Perion. He gathered his cloak to protect his face against the buffeting wind shooting sand at him. He squinted his eyes to further investigate where in Perion. There is nothing on the ground level except for dead trees. He looked up above. The sky was invisible except for a tint of blue that broke through the storm. He expected something, anything to pop out of the storm. Grendel had informed him that there was a “memory guide” that would come and attack those who entered. He walked forward, positioning his stars to a more defensive position. He spotted two massive rock structures connected by a bridge. He’ll start the investigation there. He resisted the wind blowing against him and moved forward. Eventually he reached the mass and ducked under the bridge. The wind died down with the rock blocking it, letting Eckhart get a better visual of his surroundings. He looked up to find a rope hanging from the side of the rock. He put away his stars and took the rope, scaling up the wall. He grabbed the cliff’s edge. He then hauled himself up and looked around.

The only landmarks Eckhart could make out was a broken wooden outpost and a damaged leather tent. He pulled out his dagger and filled it with dark energy. He stalked up to the tent and went toward the side of it, where he made out for any sounds coming from the inside. A few minutes passed by and the only thing he hears is the wind eroding the rocks. He doesn’t take his chances and summons a bat for reconnaissance. He closed his eyes, letting the bat’s vision be his own. The bat takes off toward the tent’s entrance. It settles on the rolled-up part and hangs upside down. From here, Eckhart spotted a blonde man with a red cape huddled over a pile of tattered books. That looks like Mihile, judging by the physical build and messy hair. The man is sifting through the books, tossing some of them many directions. The bat gets a closer look at them. Eckhart took a while to read the upside-down text, but he recognizes one of the books. The book now is older with tearing pages and a spine that’s about to snap in two. But the diagrams and horrible hand writing are recognizable even in the memory. Eckhart remembered reading that book talking about mana through weapons as a medium. Mihile owned that same one in his living quarters. This has to be Mihile then, because who else could have taken these books before Mihile? Eckhart was about to take his bat in closer when he heard audible footsteps coming. He opened his eyes and sent the bat out of the tent into an offensive position. Eckhart prepared his dagger. The footsteps come closer and a shadow begins to appear through the sandstorm.

“You should not be here. You must leave,” the shadow says, voice reverberating despite the lack of an amplifier. Eckhart swallowed. He wondered what form the memory guide would be, but the sandstorm kept their form well hidden. He didn't want to further agitate them so he stood his ground.

“Not until I get answers,” he stated, “is this Mihile’s memories? Are you the memory guide?”

The shadow stilled. Eckhart clutched his weapon even tighter. A few moments pass before the shadow spoke again.

“No. I am the protector of Chromile’s memories. Now leave.”

…

What?

 

-

 

“What?” Neinheart stated, a headache already forming, “How did this even happen?”

The Empress stared at the floor. Grendel hummed, peering into the portal where Eckhart was confronting the memory guide.

“What a predicament indeed,” Grendel agreed. He didn’t seem to be phased by this at all. Neinheart looked at the magician teacher in exasperation and shook his head. He stood up and went past the glass doors and to the mirror. If it weren’t for the Empress in his presence, he’d be pulling his hair out. Nowhere in his plans could he have predicted anything like this. Where in Mihile’s lifetime did he find Chromile’s soul? Why did Chromile only decide to reappear now? And why would Mihile not have reported this to Neinheart? All the answers were with Mihile, and as it stands, he’s now considered dead.

“Incredibly ridiculous,” Neinheart said, “Chromile was confirmed dead years ago. Where is Mihile now?”

“Neinheart,” the Empress spoke. Neinheart stopped and looked over past the glass window. The Empress stood up, hands shaking. Her eyes are shining, but no tears come down.

“I…I have faith that he is still here with us,” the Empress said, trying to force out a smile. Neinheart nodded as the Empress sat back down.

“In that case, we should begin further investigations,” Grendel offered, “we need to know if Mihile’s soul is still here. That way we will confirm whether he has left this world or not.”

“How?” Neinheart asked. Mihile, once again, manages to ruin his laid-out plans. He was going to get Mihile out of the hospital, then begin the Erevian Star ritual, then make Mihile write out all the reports as punishment, then proceed to normal schedule. Instead he must ask more favors from Grendel, putting the Knights in a vulnerable position. What a reckless child.

Grendel explained, “my graduate Bishops have taken it upon themselves to research on ways to heal more than the physical body. One of them has managed to find a method to see souls through their research. This would be a great opportunity to put those skills to use here. If the Empress would allow us.”

The two looked over to her, where she was watching the whole conversation unfold. She smiled and nodded.

“Thank you, Empress. I will do my best to ensure Chief Mihile’s recovery. Neinheart, I can send you their dissertation if you’d like.”

“Thank you. That would be appreciated Grendel. Please keep this between us and the Cygnus Knights. We cannot afford for morale to drop.”

Neinheart looked over to the mirror to see the stone on top glow a bright blue before the portal wobbled. Eckhart popped out of the jiggling mirror and back into the hospital room. He looked at the three in the room and bowed.

“Did you find anything?” Neinheart asked the Chief Knight.

Eckhart responded, “There’s a man named Chromile instead of Mihile.”

“Who happens to be Mihile’s late father,” Neinheart sighed, “though we have no idea why a supposedly dead Knight of Light is in our resident Knight of Light’s body. We will have to start with some of the research books Chromile had written. As you’ve seen in his memories, Mihile does have many of his books. Grendel has offered to do further investigations with his students. In the meanwhile, there is nothing else for us to do here.”

Eckhart nodded, going through the glass walls. He turned to the medical bed and stared at it for an uncomfortable amount of time. He then escorted the Empress out of the hospital room.

Neinheart frowned.

 

-

 

The next few days Eckhart locked himself in Mihile’s room. It was late evening, as usual. He went and searched every book on Chromile Mihile owned. He was back on Mihile’s plush couch, sifting through a red covered book with gold lettering. The room started to smell more like herbal tea than coffee now, which he was starting to miss. It was nice to pretend Mihile still occupied his own room rather than a hospital bed in Orbis. Eckhart rubbed his head, setting the book onto the towering stack that’s ready to collapse at any moment. He didn’t realize how much Mihile read until he had to take out three more stacks of books shoved under Mihile’s bed. There was not enough space on the wooden bookshelves that he owned. It wasn’t to say that his collection was large. Mihile’s room was small. However, it didn’t stop the Knight of Light from filling every nook and cranny with books. It also didn’t help that Mihile’s collection of Chromile’s research was spread everywhere. So far, the books have all been irrelevant. A lot of Chromile’s research was inconsistent, never having a conclusion or solution. He would jump from one topic, put great depth into collecting samples then stop. Eckhart decided that they weren’t the answers Chromile was looking for. The question of the day was what.

Eckhart leaned back into the couch and closed his eyes. This was like finding a needle in a haystack. Chromile was only leading him around in a big circle that kept repeating itself. Yet, Chromile’s books were the only clue they had in figuring out what he was doing in his son’s body. He went for another book until he heard a knock on the door. He paused. Everyone should be asleep. He contemplated whether to answer it or not when the knocking became more insistent. Whoever was on the other side was going to cause unwanted attention. He sighed. He stood up and walked over to the door, stepping over the many books scattered on the floor and opened it. He looked down and sees a disheveled Irena bent over heaving. Her green hair is a mess and she’s out of uniform, sporting a green t-shirt and black shorts. She held a large bouquet of yellow flowers in her hands and Eckhart’s heart dropped. Neinheart told everyone that night not to tell anyone about Mihile's conditions. Only until Grendel could confirm if Mihile's soul was still here or not. They all had to pretend that their Knight of Light was in a deep sleep instead of a potential permanent one. Eckhart switched his surprised face into a stone-cold expression, tucking his emotions away. He can’t afford to be vulnerable right now. Irena finally got her breath together and stood straight up. Her eyes full of relief was immediately shrouded with disappointment.

“Oh,” she started, “I didn’t realize-”

“He’s not back,” Eckhart said. Irena pursed her lips together and looked down.

Irena stated, “of course he’s not. Otherwise Neinheart would have told us! How silly of me.”

Irena’s attempt to laugh it off died in her throat when she took a closer look at Eckhart’s face. His dead eyes and dark circles said it all, he figured. Damn it. Where's his mask when he needed it?

“Have you been sleeping?” she asked, hand reaching out to Eckhart. He backed away from the touch.

He brusquely replied, “don’t need to.”

Irena’s eyes furrowed, “Eckhart-”

Eckhart bristled. She closed her mouth. The two of them then went into a sudden showdown. Eckhart knew Irena wasn’t going to go away until he got a nap and he wasn’t going to leave Mihile’s room without answers. As much as he appreciated Irena and her thoughtful nature, he needed his space to take all this in. He still feels like he’s walking through a fever dream where he’s struggling to breathe. His days are blurred and he’s beginning to feel numb by all this listless searching.

Irena sighed finally, “okay, you win. At least let me put the flowers in a vase.”

Eckhart was glad that she’s not going to submit him into sleep when he realized that Mihile’s room is a tornado. She can’t know about Chromile’s research books yet.

He blocked Irena, trying to obscure as much of the room as he can, “I’ll take those.”

“I know where he keeps his vases. And besides,” Irena narrowed her eyes at him, “how are you in Mihile’s room? Only he and Neinheart have access there.”

Eckhart knew where Mihile kept his vases, though she’s not supposed to know that. She also especially can’t know that Mihile gave him a key when he snuck into his bedroom for the third time. He wasn’t going to win this, so he slid over for her to enter. Irena still glared at Eckhart while going through and nearly tripped over the books.

“What the-” Irena began but after scanning the room she was speechless. Eckhart closed the door behind her and wove through the books, unfazed by her reaction. He sat back down on the couch and went back to his research. The next book he picked up has a worn leather cover with no title except for Chromile’s name on it. He turned the page. She’ll come around. She stood at the door for a while before tip-toeing around the books until she got to the couch. She plopped down, still not saying a word. Eckhart took the tea pot on the table and poured out a cup. Irena placed the bouquet down. She then immediately snatched the cup and swallowed it down. She cradled the cup after she finished, looking ahead instead of at him.

A few seconds passed before Irena stated, “you did this without Mihile’s consent.”

“Yes,” Eckhart admitted.

“This is,” she started, “this is worse than going through Oz’s phone. You know how much he hates talking about his past. And now you’re here-”

Irena wildly gestured toward the stack of books with Chromile’s name written all over them, “going through his dead father's things.”

Eckhart didn’t have a retort. She was right. Mihile will never forgive him, but nobody except Chromile’s books have the answer to what he did to himself. It’s fine if Mihile hates him for it, he just wants him back.

The two Chief Knights both stared at the wall in front of them now. Irena was fiddling with the cup as Eckhart paged through one of Chromile’s journals. The room went into a dead silence. He hadn’t talked to any of the other Chief Knights after Black Heaven, so he didn’t know what to talk about other than death. In the corner of his eye he spotted Irena pick the bouquet up and walk toward one of Mihile’s cupboards. She grabbed a glass vase and placed the flowers in there, setting it on Mihile’s study desk. She then pushed open the blue curtains nearby, letting in the moon's light flood the room. She also unlatched the windows and cracked them open. Eckhart felt a sudden breeze flip the page he was on.

“No wonder you’re cranky, you tried to close yourself in like a hermit crab,” Irena said. Eckhart bit his lip to avoid saying how wrong that entire statement was.

“There’s so much dust in here too. That’s not good for your lungs to breathe in either! The most you can do is clean the room if you’re going to be using it.”

The sounds of tapping on wood echoed through the room as Irena bustled around. Eckhart stared at her but sighed. Whatever, as long as she wasn’t disturbing him. He flipped back to the page he was on and read. Now it looked like he was closer to what Chromile was searching for. The inked pages showed diagrams of a monster and a yellow spherical object labeled ‘soul’. A lot of the words were weathered, but he could make out the horrible handwriting.

_“- as a Knight of Light, I’ve been able to see something beyond human eyes; the soul. I’m not sure why no one else but me can see it, but I’ll see to it that these abilities are put to great use. It is both my duty as a warrior and researcher that Maple World can stand against the dark forces that come after it. Does the soul have a potential that humans have not unlocked? Or am I going into something too dangerous for anybody to be utilizing as a weapon? That’s what I’m here for. We’ll begin with the hypothesis of-”_

Eckhart clicked his tongue. The paragraph got stained over by something red-brown and he can’t read the rest of the page. He hoped the rest of the book wasn’t like this. He went to the end of the book. Once again, the pages are too worn to be readable. This time instead of a monster, there’s a person with a sphere attacking a monster with a glowing yellow sword. A paragraph got cut in half. Eckhart peered further down on the diagrams.

_“This notebook is almost finished. I know how to tap into our soul. It’s dangerous, because it is using your very core being. Once out in the open, its privy to any form of attack and it’ll leave you defenseless; both physically and mentally. However, I’ve been able to-”_

_“-the key to unlocking a soul’s true potential. It needed a medium that it could reside to avoid exposure to the outside. This isn’t over yet. I’m going to try to collect these ‘soul shards’ and experiment. My wife is due with our child soon and I want to be with her for that. I can’t wait to show our child the many things I’ve collected and researched.”_

A sinking feeling raised in Eckhart. This is one of the most finished conclusions that Chromile has made and it’s the end of the book. Could Chromile have trapped himself in a medium to stay alive this whole time? He doesn’t know if the experiments succeeded. Where’s the soul shards now? There’s too many questions. He placed the book on the coffee table and scatters the books to find the next volume. He doesn’t find anything that is similar looking. Why didn’t Chromile finish this one? What caused him to die? While he was agonizing over this, he didn’t notice Irena’s footsteps come closer. He snapped his head up in time to see Irena toss several journals onto the couch. He caught one in the air and scanned the book. The cover was an ordinary black cover. The title was what got his attention; “Soul Master: Part 1”. He opened the first page and almost dropped it. The handwriting was nothing like Chromiles’; it was neat and easy to read. But, it was the tiny name in the corner that made Eckhart flip through the entire thing.

“Where’d you find this?” Eckhart asked Irena, who peered over at the man.

“Well,” Irena said, tucking a stray hair back, “there’s a plank of wood Mihile broke off once to hide his father’s diary once. Figured all his other books were in the same spot. The important ones at least. Don’t ask me how I know this. It was an accident.”

Before Irena could go on a nervous tangent, Eckhart interrupted her, “Why are you helping me?”

Irena crossed her arms and Eckhart finally noticed the redness in her eyes. It felt too personal and raw, so he looked away to retrieve the last journal. At least Mihile numbered his notebooks. He got it and scrolled to the last chapter. A few seconds passed and he almost regretted asking when she replied.

“That’s what we do as Cygnus Knights, Eckhart. We help each other. We don’t fight alone. You’ve been doing whatever Neinheart’s been telling you all alone. Don’t think we haven’t noticed you slip away in the middle of the night into his room.”

Eckhart flinched. He was getting careless. Maybe he has to admit that the nightly excursions are draining him. He hadn’t meant to concern the others, especially when they were dealing with their own problems. He looked over to Irena now, who had chosen to sit back on the couch. She reached out once again, and this time he let her hands clasp his wrist. He wanted to look back to Mihile’s journal, but Irena’s intensity forced him to look into her eyes. Her eyes still had red tinges around it. However, he felt her heated gaze bore through him.

Irena continued, “So let me help, and let me help Mihile too. You’re not the only one who wants Mihile back. This-”

She swallowed, “-this is going to save Mihile, Right?”

Eckhart finally managed to look down on the last page of Mihile’s journal, stared into Irena’s eyes, and lied.

“Soul Master: Part 3” had two paragraphs on the last page:

_“After many failures, wild goose chases, and minimal time, I’ve been able to figure out what I am. My father’s late research has led me on a path of literal soul searching. Ever since I entered Sleepywood to look for my father, I’ve been able to see an aura emanating from…everything. The monsters, the Empress, and everyone else. I’ve determined them as souls, as I’ve seen them leave the body of a monster once it dies. As it turns out, a part of my soul has been attached to this shield already. Not sure when that happened, but ever since I’ve been seeing the aura in my shield get bigger. It seems that the more I grow, so does the shield. It’s gotten more powerful even though I haven’t enhanced it with scrolls. My shield has properties that I’ve never been able to replicate in Maple World unless I used monster souls. So…I’m not a Knight of Light, but a Soul Master; one that uses the soul within to protect everyone. Not sure if I got that power before or after retrieving my father’s old armor from Sleepywood. Maybe I had it all along.”_

_“The other thing I’ve seen is that there’s another aura coming from my father’s sword. I suspect he had placed of his own soul into the sword a long time ago. When I use it, it’s as if it’s got a power source of its own. I don’t think I’ve used up any of my mana ever since I picked it up. Its aura is so much bigger than my shield’s soul though. Lately, it’s been increasing ever since it’s been fighting side by side with my father’s sword. Is my shield absorbing my father’s soul, or is the soul going somewhere else? The answer was one I am afraid of admitting on paper. I’ve been getting very vivid dreams of his tent in Perion with a woman. I have a sinking feeling that I know where the soul has been going. For now, I’m keeping this to myself. There’s so much that can go wrong, but so much potential. Imagine being able to derive power from two souls instead of one without mana. I refuse to risk my students into following my path though, for there is both light and dark on this side of the coin. I know the risks. But for Maple World, we'll march on. My father and I. We’ll see who is the true Knight of Light.”_


End file.
